While I was in Moscow last week I’ve spent a bit of time with our new friends Alan (@alan_enileev) and Alex (@markovsky), and as we were discussing new possible automotive photo shoots the guys mentioned one of their instagram followers and friends – Yusuf (@yusufn1), who is a pretty popular and respected man in their circles due to his collection of cars and how he manages to tune them (separate post on that coming soon). The reason why they’ve mentioned him was because during our trip to Dubai they have noticed a Greubel Forsey GMT as one of the nominees at the GPHG 2013; they remembered that this same piece also belonged to their friend, and as I was very fond of it we’ve all decided to schedule a meet with the owner and see what else he’s got – he turned out to be a real-deal watch collector :)

As we met him in the garage I could take a better look at the inside of his most popular car – the Mercedes ML63 AMG ‘Deceptikon’ (photos of it coming soon too). The red leather and carbon perfectly matched the awesome rose gold Greubel Forsey GMT. For the ones who don’t know that incredible watch let’s do a bit of explaining… GMT basically stands for a second time zone when it comes to watches, and this is probably the most expensive and innovative way to show it. The timepiece has a rotating 3D globe at 7 o’clock, which tells you pretty much all of the worlds time, and can be adjusted by a push button at 10 o’clock. On the case back there’s a disk with all of the timezones, and on the dial you have the 2 hour sets, minutes, seconds, a 72 hour power reserve and a 25 degrees inclined tourbillon that ensures accuracy of the watch. If you’re still wondering about the price point of this limited edition beast – it’s somewhere around $600’000.

Then Yusuf pulled out a few more of his incredible pieces, and after mounting them onto his steering wheel we all took off to a very nice sushi place nearby. There we took a closer look at the GMT and got to play around with the delicious sushi being served to us.

Another watch that Yusuf brought along was his super limited and special Hublot. That skeletonized tourbillon and minute repeater made of platinum is a limited edition of 10 pieces, and until now there were only 2 produced to my knowledge (Yusuf’s is the second). It’s a part of the Big Bang collection and by diameter it measures 44 mm. So if you can get your hands on this piece I’d recommend you get it – it’s a rare and awesome watch!

Finally a couple more of our Russian collector’s watches such as the Jacob & Co. ‘Quenttin’. Made of rose gold this piece retailed for around $500’000 due to its rare 31 day power reserve! Not my favourite watch by the looks, it’s huge and chunky, but what else did you expect from a 31 day power reserve?! Though if you’re even lazier than that and don’t want to wind your watch once every 30 days you can try out the new Hublot La Ferrari with a 50 day one :) And just like Hublot this piece has a tourbillon, but on the side instead of the front of the case. And next to it is Yusuf’s Franck Muller tourbillon that also has his name engraved on the case back!

So that was the fantastic 4 of our Russian friend, and be sure to check out some of his cars next time, with awesome photos by @Markovsky. Also, join our WatchAnish Club to get exclusive content for the members only!